The first runners-up prize in the North America category went to Ottawa’s Hindam Innovation for Meeting Co$t.

Meeting Co$t creates awareness among participants about the approximated running cost of the meeting. The display of increasing cost creates emotional identification that encourages participants to use efficiently the meeting time.

Winners of the most innovative BlackBerry WebWorks app for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and BlackBerry smartphones were selected on a regional basis. Apps were judged based on quality and use of development best practices, level of visual appeal, user experience, and creativity and innovation.

All winners of the 2011 BlackBerry Partners Fund Developer Challenge will be recognized at the 2011 BlackBerry Developer Conference (DevCon) on October 18–20th in San Francisco.

This year’s prizing for all competitions is valued at $3 million, almost double the value of prizes awarded last year.

FreshBooks this week released a new resource to help self-employed professionals optimize their hourly rates. The Toronto-based accounting software company notes that roughly one-third of the workforce in the...